Cons

Bottom Line

Microsoft's Xbox Design Lab lets you customize the colors of the new Xbox One Wireless Controller, if you don't mind a $20 premium and a bit of a wait.

17 Jul 2017Will Greenwald

Last year Microsoft rolled out its Xbox Design Lab custom controller service alongside its slightly redesigned Xbox One wireless gamepad (included with the Xbox One S). The Xbox Design Lab lets you mix and match different colors and other elements to create your ideal Xbox One controller. Since then, the Xbox Design Lab has added a few new customization elements to play with, which we checked out with our latest design.

Pricing

The Xbox Design Lab controllers start at $79.99 with a slew of diferent color options, a $20 premium over the default Xbox One wireless gamepad. Microsoft recently added the free option of rubberized grips, plus the ability to upgrade your gamepad with metallic triggers for $3.99 a pair, and a metallic direction pad for $2.99. These additions, plus $9.99 for custom engraving, gave our newest custom design a total price of $92.96.

What's New

The gamepad itself hasn't been heavily overhauled, and a casual glance would render it indistinguishable from the original Xbox One Wireless Controller (aside from the paint job). The most notable change is the addition of a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom of the gamepad. It sits to the left of the headset adapter port and lets you use any wired headphones or headset that terminates in a single 3.5mm plug. The adapter port is still there as a courtesy and optional convenience; several Xbox One wired headsets have their own adapters that plug into the port, and the Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter (which is no longer needed for using your own headset) still offers physical volume controls and muting that just plugging into the 3.5mm port doesn't.

Beside the headset jack, the only other physical change is the texture on the underside of the hand grips. The plastic is slightly rough, like fine sandpaper, which makes it easier to handle than the completely smooth grips of the original gamepad. It doesn't feel quite as rock-solid or premium as the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller, with its metal components, but that gamepad costs almost twice as much as the custom Design Lab version. The grip can be enhanced with a rubberized surface over the back, available as a free option when customizing the controller.

Internally, the new gamepad includes Bluetooth support in addition to the proprietary RF connection used by the original. This means you can connect it to your Windows 10 PC (if it has Bluetooth) without needing the Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows. The Bluetooth-enabled gamepad can also be connected to Windows 10 phones and tablets, but Android and iOS aren't officially supported. You can also connect over a USB cable using the micro USB port on top of the controller. It takes two AA batteries to function wirelessly, and a pair comes included.

Xbox Design Lab

The Xbox Design Lab site walks you through the customization process. Start with your choice of 19 different colors for the main shell of the controller, including Glacier Blue, Retro Pink, and Robot White. After that, you can mix and match using the same selection of colors for the back of the controller, the shoulder/trigger buttons, and the direction pad. You can optionally add a dark gray rubberized grip to the back, and upgrade the triggers and direction pad with metallic finishes. Curiously, you can't get metallic bumper buttons; they're glossy plastic no matter what the triggers are.

You can color the analog thumbsticks as well. The Xbox Design Lab originally offered only eight color choices for the thumbsticks, but now you can choose from the same 19 different colors as the gamepad shell, triggers, and direction pad. There is no metallic option for the thumbsticks; they're the same grippy textured rubber as before.

The face buttons (A/B/X/Y) and Menu/View buttons have fewer options, and also count as their own groups. You can get the face buttons in black on gray, gray on white, gray on black, white on black, or the standard colored text on black (A is green, X is blue, and so on). The Menu/View buttons come in black on gray, gray on white, gray on black, or white on black.

The fixed groupings for colors limit just how custom you can make your controller. There are still thousands of potential combinations, but it's disappointing you can't have different colored thumbsticks, face buttons, or shoulder bumpers/triggers. On the bright side, the groupings make it very difficult to craft a really ugly controller.

For an extra $9.99, you can get a laser engraving. It's a small line of text up to 16 characters in length on the bottom edge of the gamepad's front plate, between the direction pad and the left analog stick. There aren't any choices for different fonts or positions for the engraving.

Performance and Conclusions

Last year I designed Purple Reign with the options offered by the Xbox Design Lab at the time. Now, with more options, I created a new gamepad with (in my opinion) even better aesthetics. Gamerwave is a vaporwave-themed gamepad with starkly contrasting light blue, hot pink, and purple, with rubber grips and metallic triggers and direction pad. The word AESTHETICS is engraved on the front, under the Guide button.

As a gamepad, it performs just like Purple Reign before it. It's ultimately a current Xbox One wireless gamepad with some cosmetic improvements, and works perfectly well with both Xbox One consoles and PCs equipped with the Xbox Wireless Adapter. The rubberized grip on the back is the only real factor for any sort of difference in performance compared with other Xbox One gamepads. It's grippier and easier to hold, and generally feels most secure in the hand. Besides that, the metallic direction pad and triggers don't feel significantly different from their glossy plastic versions, and all inputs come through responsively.

If you want a custom controller without dealing with third-party modders, the Xbox Design Lab is still the best way to do it. You can't get fancy graphics or hardware mods, but you can come up with your own color schemes, especially with the new color and material options for certain parts. The Elite remains a mechanically superior controller because of its metal build quality, but it's over twice the price of a stock Xbox One wireless gamepad and only comes in black. Getting a custom design for just $20 to $33 more than an off-the-shelf gamepad is a strong choice for anyone who spends much of their time with a controller in their hands.

About the Author

Will Greenwald has been covering consumer technology for a decade, and has served on the editorial staffs of CNET.com, Sound & Vision, and Maximum PC. His work and analysis has been seen in GamePro, Tested.com, Geek.com, and several other publications. He currently covers consumer electronics in the PC Labs as the in-house home entertainment expert, reviewing TVs, media hubs, speakers, headphones, and gaming accessories. Will is also an ISF Level II-certified TV calibrator, which ensures the thoroughness and accuracy of all PCMag TV reviews. See Full Bio